John Wall showed some serious flashes of brilliance over the course of his rookie campaign. Even though he was hampered by injuries for most of the year, Wall established himself as having one of the quickest first steps in the league, some of the best top-end speed in the league, and brilliant passing ability. However, he did show some glaring weaknesses, notably his turnover ratio and abysmal jump shot. According to the Washington Post’s Michael Lee, Wall plans on improving both of those weaknesses in the off-season:

Wall is optimistic that the Wizards will find the right pieces this offseason, but he has big plans for his team and himself. “Next year, I just want to be in the playoffs,” Wall said. “Everything I didn’t do good this year, you’re going to see me get better at next season, making jump shots, being more confident, less turnovers. But studying a lot, being a better defender, all those things. That’s the same thing Derrick said, ‘I want to be MVP.’ It might not happen next year, but at least by my third year, I want to be in the race.”

If Wall can fix his jump shot, he’ll quickly become one of the most unstoppable players in the league, but he has a lot of work to do. Wall seemed confident going to his pull-up jump shot all season long, but that confidence was mostly unfounded. Wall had an eFG% of only 34.2% on jump shots last season, which is absolutely horrible — Rajon Rondo shot 38.2% on jump shots.

Wall isn’t the first talented rookie who came into the league with a broken jump shot. LeBron shot 35.6% on jumpers his rookie season, and Dwyane Wade shot only 37.1%. Chris Paul only shot 42% on jumpers his rookie year, and he’s now one of the best jump shooters in the league. Heck, Kevin Durant only shot 39.7% on jumpers his rookie season. (These are all eFG% numbers, by the way, and courtesy of 82games.com.)

We know that Wall has a very bad jump shot. We also know that great players have come into the league with bad jump shots before, and have often improved them. Whether Wall makes those improvements or not will be the question for his development as a potential All-NBA player going forward.

In fact, in Saturday’s dunk contest, he didn’t look like a dunker at all.

The Pacers star missed all three attempts of his first dunk, and a Black Panther mask was by far the biggest draw of his second. Oladipo was eliminated after the first round.

Maybe Dennis Smith Jr. wasn’t the only eliminated dunker who left something in his bag. This Oladipo dunk – 180 degrees, throwing ball off the backboard with his left hand while in mid-air, dunking with his right hand – while preparing in Los Angeles was awesome.

A statement released Wednesday by the NFL and NBA clubs says their 90-year-old owner is resting comfortably at Ochsner Medical Center, a hospital which also serves as a major sponsor and which owns naming rights to the teams’ training headquarters.

Benson has owned the New Orleans Saints since 1985 and bought the New Orleans Pelicans in 2012.

In recent years, Benson has overhauled his estate plan so that his third wife, Gayle, would be first in line to inherit control of the two major professional franchises.

Spurs coach Gregg Popovich said he’d be surprised if Kawhi Leonard played again this season, a stark reversal from just a month ago. Back then, even while announcing Leonard was out indefinitely with a quad injury, the San Antonio coach said Leonard wouldn’t miss the rest of the season.

After spending 10 days before the All-Star break in New York consulting with a specialist to gather a second opinion on his right quad injury, All-NBA forward Kawhi Leonard bears the burden of determining when he’s prepared to play again, sources told ESPN.

Leonard has been medically cleared to return from the right quad tendinopathy injury, but since shutting down a nine-game return to the Spurs that ended Jan. 13, he has elected against returning to the active roster, sources said.

The uncertainty surrounding this season — and Leonard’s future which could include free agency in the summer of 2019 — has inspired a palpable stress around the organization, league sources said.

At first glance, this sounds like Derrick Rose five years ago. Even after he was cleared to play following a torn ACL, the then-Bulls star remained mysterious about when he’d suit up. His confidence in his physical abilities seemed to be a major issue, and he was never the same player since (suffering more leg injuries).

But the Spurs famously favor resting players to preserve long-term health. They seem unlikely to rush back Leonard. They might even sit players who want to play more often. And Leonard isn’t Rose.

Still, it’s clear something is amiss in San Antonio. Maybe not amiss enough to end Leonard’s tenure there, but the longer this lingers, the more time for tension to percolate.